Food Food and Nutrition

Plant-Based Crab Cakes and Fish Burgers Are Coming Soon to a Freezer Section Near You

Allie Flinn

July 9, 2020

In December of 2019, which was amazingly both eight months ago and eight years ago because what is time anymore, Well+Good predicted that 2020 was going to be the year that alt-meat substitutes beyond beef really took off. While nobody could have forecasted many of the things happening now (most of which make for better The Onion headlines than actual reality), our prediction for the alt-meat movement was pretty spot on. You can now find Impossible Sausage breakfast sandwiches at Starbucks; Beyond Meat sausages, burgers, and more in grocery stores and on fast food menus across the country, and even convincing bacon made out of koji. The latest in alt-meat news? Plant-based seafood appetizers and meals from vegan fish company Good Catch.

Experts In This Article

Whitney English, MS, RDN, plant-based registered dietitian nutritionist and NASM-certified personal trainer

The brand, which launched with a plant-based tuna last year, just expanded its offerings to include three new products: New England Style Plant-Based Crab Cakes, Thai Style Plant-Based Fish Cakes, and Classic Plant-Based Fish Burgers. Each product offers a whopping 20-21 grams of protein per serving, coming from a blend of six different sources: pea, soy, chickpea, lentil, faba, and navy bean. The products also contain omega-3s—fatty acids naturally present in fish crucial for heart and brain health—from algal oil. Unlike most other plant-based sources of omega-3s, algae provides DHAs rather than EPA omega-3s, the former being easier for the human body to digest. Plus, algal oil has the added benefit of lending the products a fishy flavor, thus making the plant-based seafood even more comparable to regular seafood.

"On the plus side, the new products are an excellent source of plant protein and iron, and they're low in saturated fat," Whitney English Tabaie, RDN, CPT, says. She also loves that the products contain spices for flavor as well as whole vegetables to round out the nutrition and taste profiles. "However, they're a bit high in sodium, so I would try to limit sodium in the rest of your meal when consuming them."

If you're skeptical that a plant-based seafood cake/burger could taste good, know that the texture in the cakes and burger is moist (sorry) and juicy, and all of the products are quite flavorful. They also brown nicely on the stove top just like a regular fish burger would, and they cook in about 10 minutes. Also—and this is a huge bonus—they don't make your house smell like fish. All in all, they're extremely convincing (and satisfying) dupes of fish burgers, crab cakes, and fish cakes.

The burgers are $6 for two, and the fish and crab cakes are $6 for eight. The seafood burgers and cakes are available to buy in-store in the freezer section of certain retailers on the East Coast (check out the list here), as well as online at Amazon, Thrive Market, and Target. (The brand plans to expand the launch nationwide later this year.) From where we sit, this new line of alt-fish is poised to make a big splash with plant-based eaters and omnivores alike.